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Maintaining Cybersecurity compliance is an arduous task, fraught with challenges. It's costly and time-consuming, and often, the complexity of regulations outpaces an organization's ability to manage them effectively.
Cybersecurity and privacy compliance requires organizations large and small to prepare a minimum level of protection for their systems and sensitive data. Moreover, it requires that maintenance and attention to changes to regulations, technologies and Cybersecurity risks. For companies that do not have dedicated GRC teams or need to augment and/or streamline their existing teams, Cybersecurity Compliance as a Service (CaaS) is a plausible solution to streamline and centralize compliance, reduce costs and obtain expert support with subject matter experts in privacy, regulatory, technical Cybersecurity and AI.
Tired of compliance feeling like a never-ending treadmill? Curious if there's a more effective way to manage risk and stay ahead of the curve? Read on.
What is CaaS?
Cybersecurity CaaS is a model where compliance activities and GRC technology are outsourced or supplemented to a third-party provider who specializes in Cybersecurity compliance management. Unlike traditional approaches, where compliance is managed in-house, CaaS leverages external expertise and technology to deliver a comprehensive compliance solution. Note that buying a tool only without the expertise to deploy will take hundreds of hours of engineers or other personnel to set up and maintain. With CaaS, this burden disappears as the enabling technology is set up and maintained with the appropriate expertise to ensure Cybersecurity compliance is not just a ‘check the box’ exercise.
CaaS covers the following areas:
- Policy Development: Create, maintain, and enforce Cybersecurity policies and procedures that align with compliance requirements
- Risk Management: Regularly evaluate and identify vulnerabilities and threats to the organization’s information systems
- Maintaining a centralized risk register and corrective action plan to improve risk management
- Incident Response: Develop and maintain an incident response plan to address potential security breaches or cyberattacks. This includes tabletop testing and centralized management.
- Implementation & Evaluation of Controls: implementation and continuous evaluation of controls such as encryption, access management, backups, patch management, change management and others.
- Vendor Management: Centralized process to maintain third party risk evaluations with standard evaluation process. Trust center also offered to provide a line of sight and confidence to customers on current Cybersecurity compliance efforts
- Training and Awareness: Ensure centralized management of Cybersecurity and privacy awareness and training and centralized acknowledgement of policies
- Documentation: Maintain detailed records in a centralized and continuous manner of all Cybersecurity efforts, including risk assessments, incident response activities, penetration tests, Human Resources security
- Continuous Monitoring and Updates: Implement tools and processes to continuously monitor the organization’s IT environment for potential threats or vulnerabilities
- Legal and Regulatory Adherence: Continuous maintenance of regulatory and compliance requirements stacked in a centralized dashboard to understand overlap and differences between current and ongoing updates to Cybersecurity and privacy regulation and frameworks.
- Stakeholder Communication: Regularly communicate with stakeholders, including senior leadership, board of directors, about the organization’s Cybersecurity posture and compliance status. Centralized dashboard of compliance adherence, risk assessment results, vendor management, human resources security and other key areas of an Information Security Program.
Why Cyber CaaS is Gaining Momentum
The adoption of CaaS is soaring, fueled by several factors. The global regulatory landscape is becoming more and more complex and stringent, and businesses are under constant pressure to comply with myriad state, national, and even international regulations with extraterritorial applicability.
Cost pressures are another factor. Building and maintaining an in-house Cybersecurity and Privacy compliance team is an expensive exercise. Salaries, training, technology, and other operational costs add up quickly, and CaaS offers a cost-effective alternative by providing access to expert Cybersecurity and Privacy and Compliance practitioners at a fraction of the cost.
Technological advancements are also crucial. Cloud-based platforms and automation technologies enable CaaS Solutions to deliver services more efficiently and on a scale.
The Benefits Beyond Cost Savings
Hence the key benefits include:
- Centralizing all Cybersecurity compliance efforts and providing a line of sight to technical personnel, senior leadership and board of directors.
- Lowering costs of CyberSec compliance due to continuous monitoring practices and centralized line of sight on overlapping regulations and compliance requirements
- Having a team of experts at a fraction of the costs and advisors to technical teams and senior leadership
- Continuous updates to applicable compliance and regulatory requirements
- Real-time visibility of Cybersecurity Compliance Posture.
A Host of Advantages
Do you have the time and effort to manage your Cybersecurity compliance, the team, or the time to do this? Could Cybersecurity CaaS be the change or initiation your Cybersecurity Compliance/ GRC program needs? With the potential to save money, time, and improve your Cybersecurity and Privacy compliance posture, it offers an attractive alternative to in-house compliance management.
Consider the main advantages: reduced operational costs, enhanced compliance oversight, and the ability to focus on strategic initiatives. As the regulatory landscape continues to evolve, the scalability and expertise offered by CaaS providers can help organizations stay ahead of the curve.
